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ISLAMABAD: The country is heading for commercialisation of genetically modified (GM) crops, in the absence of a strong regulatory system, trained staff and well-equipped laboratory to deal with the issues involved, according to an officer.

“The government is handicapped, from field testing to approval and finally, commercialisation of GM crops,” an official of the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council told Dawn.

Worse, the government depends entirely on data provided by applicants (producers of GM crops in Pakistan) who evaluate, monitor, discuss, regulate and approve GM crops for sale to farmers.

“This also explains why relaxations are given outside the law to GM seed producers who have been unable to meet established standards,” the official said, elaborating how toxin levels in genetically modified Bt cotton had been reduced, leading to new kinds of pests.

He also gave the example of a reduction of the germination level from 75 per cent (in accordance with the Seed Act of 1976) to less than 50pc, which significantly increased the cost of production for farmers.

According to the Bio-safety Guidelines and Rules of 2005, representatives of various departments of the textile ministry, including the Central Cotton Research Institute in Multan, Pakistan Central Cotton Committee in Karachi and Cotton Crop Assessment Committee; the PARC, the Federal Seed Certification and Registration Department of the Ministry of National Food Security and Research; the Nuclear Institute for Agriculture and Biology and Institute for Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, Faisalabad, of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission; the Punjab agriculture department and the Ministry of Science and Technology are members of a Technical Advisory Committee of the Ministry of Science and Technology and the National Bio-safety Committee (NBC) which approves commercialisation of GM seeds.

“It is because of involvement of all these organisations that the NBC’s requirements and bio-safety standards are compromised when it comes to designing, monitoring, implementing and enforcing rules and regulations concerning GM crops,” said Asif Shuja, a former director general of the Pakistan Environment Protection Agency who had time and again recommended that neutral members should be included in the NBC to verify data on GM crops.

“What used to bother me was how the Technical Advisory Committee never debated GM crops and nobody used to be concerned about their impact on the local environment,” he said.

A former secretary of the Climate Change Division, Raja Hasan Abbas, said: “The membership of the NBC should be widened and environment experts and health scientists should be included in it for transparency.”

The NBC has been functioning without plant breeders, bio-safety experts, entomologists, agronomists, ecologists, biochemists, microbiologists, and other qualified staff not only to independently check data provided by seed producers but also to assist farmers in establishing refuge and buffer zones between GM and non-GM crops to delay resistance development in pests and prevent cross-pollination and contamination of GM crops, an agriculture expert said.

And it is because of this lack of capacity that the NBC approved in February, without any objection, trial tests of GM corn of gene numbers MIR163 and MON810, which are banned by China and European countries. On May 5, the French parliament banned the MON810 gene in corn, describing it as hazardous.

According to official documents, Pakistan is bound to adhere to international standards as a signatory to the Convention on Biodiversity and the Cartagena Protocol on Bio-Safety. However, there are no bio-safety laws and regulations at the federal and provincial levels to enforce these international commitments.

Experts believe that it is imperative for the NBC to function independently and have representation of stakeholders, environmentalists, NGOs and growers for feedback and social scientists for data analysis and monitoring of the impact of an approval on national biodiversity and socio-economic impact on farmers.

“It is also imperative that the NBC is equipped with state of the art laboratories and has trained staff to cross check bio-safety data of GM crops in the local environment and its impact on biodiversity,” an official of the Climate Change Division said.

Although, PARC Chairman Dr Iftikhar Ahmad disagreed that there was anything wrong with the composition of the NBC, he conceded that there were no environment and health science experts in it.

“The organisations are however in the best position to research and monitor GM crops before approving them for commercial purposes,” he said.

I appeal to the government to not succumb to Monsanto and the like. They could not care less about the welfare of the people and have a dark history. Our farmers are not very exposed and may well be left with no option but to yield to this Monsanto regime.

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Fahad Abdullah

May 12, 2014 10:35am

Why would Monsanto need Blackwater aka XE aka Academi for protecting its staff in Latin America?
It is much worse than you can even imagine...

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Aziz

May 12, 2014 10:47am

There is an urgent need to put regulatory framework around GM crops in Pakistan.

The government should bear in mind that there will be immense external and internal pressure and threats from vested interest groups if we try to regulate these corporations. The case of GM labelling in the US is a clear example where the GM corporations have enforced legislations in their favour to the extreme detriment of the people.

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Haji Sohail

May 12, 2014 02:15pm

GM crops are banned in several countries with some actually carried out independent tests which showed ample evidence of severe health risks including cancer & negative impact on soil . Most of european countries, Switzerland, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Philippines, Algeria, Brazil (certain Latin American countries) and Russia have either completely or partially banned GM food & crops. Not to mention certain states in the USA have enforced GM labelling going to banning them.
India is another example of how bad things got since GM crops were introduced. A large number of farmers have committed suicide, the cost to grow have sky rocketed.
Pakistan by introducing GM is inviting more disaster to a already sinking ship, shame on those who have sold for few dollars. These should be put on GM food for next ten years just to see its impact.

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Dr. Asim

May 12, 2014 07:05pm

Thank you Dawn for highlighting this issue. It is unfortunate that how poor regulatory system is in place to handle high-tech GM or Bt technology. When approval body is lacking in capacity every body takes advantage of it but if some thing goes wrong no one take responsibility.

There should be a strong independent regulatory body to assess GM seed cases otherwise there will be very serious negative consequence on human health, agriculture sector and environment.

Our regulatory, scientists, policymakers approved substandard Bt cotton and banned gene of GM Corn. Since introduction of Bt cotton 2010 our cotton production is declining, uses of pesticides has increased and new pest has emerged but still no independent evaluation on the performance of Bt cotton and study on low toxin approved Bt cotton seed. Because of their own vested interest farmers have to bear the cost.

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Mischa Popoff

May 13, 2014 10:21pm

Hey... whatta great idea! Let's hamstring the production of new GMO crops while China sneaks up behind us all and comes out with hundreds of GMO crops!